Art & Queer History: Survey of Queer Art in the US in the 20th CenturyCalifornia State University, San Francisco (2018)

Image: Claude Cahun, What Do You Want from Me? (1928)

How have works of art both shaped and documented queer culture in the United States during the 20th century? This upper division course considers paintings, photographs, sculptures and other types of visual and material art as important points of access to sexual and gendered experiences in the United States over the last century that are routinely excluded from canonical accounts of not just art history, but social and cultural history at large. By following a chronological trajectory through the 20th century, the first half of this course is designed to chart the production of queer art and the careers of queer artists over time and to articulate how these works relate to more widely recognized queer histories and canonical art movements. The second half of this course abandons chronology for a more thematic organizing logic. Readings of texts by scholars who specialize in the history and philosophy of art, LGBTQ+ history and queer theory are assigned throughout the course to give students the opportunity to engage with works of art through various disciplinary lenses. Weekly discussions and notation assignments are designed to keep students engaged with texts and images and to create a collegial and collaborative classroom environment. Finally, a final paper, produced in stages throughout the term, will afford students an opportunity to produce a 6-page art historical essay of their own on a work of art that is important to queer history and has likely never been written on before. What do you have to say about these works that might reveal something that has thus far gone unseen?

Course Objectives​​The objective of this course is to challenge and empower students to meaningfully engage with the art and visual materials that make up LGBTQ+ history in the United States in ways that are sensitive to both their own internal life and the work’s formal qualities, materials, historical context and political significance. To do this, I will rely on and impart methods of formal analysis, social art history and material culture. These methods may be familiar to some students and completely new to others; whatever the case, by the end of this course all students will have developed and exercised their own set of skills for addressing works of art according to their aesthetic properties, their relationships to their social contexts and the ways in which works function to activate the viewer’s sensorial experience. By the end of this semester, students who come to class prepared and who invest in their papers will be equipped to:

Critically and creatively see a work of art.

Critically and creatively describe a work of art.

Connect works of art to history and, moreover, engage them as actors in—not mere “reflections” of—that past.

Begin to practice the craft of art history with a growing commandof its tools and language.

See your own visual and material worlds anew. This class is about your life and the place of art, history, and art history in it.

Course Materials​

Textbook: Richard Meyer and Catherine Lord, Art & Queer Culture (Phaidon), Second Edition - this text will supplement weekly lecture images and expose students to many more works than lectures can cover (available on Amazon)

Additional texts are assigned each week: These texts will (1) provide background knowledge of LGBTQ+ history that will help students situate works of art within the moments of their making, (2) expose students to important texts within queer theory and discourse that will help students deepen their understanding of queer art and (3) serve as material for weekly discussions. Students will be required to reference these texts in their final papers and recognize quotes from these texts will be included on the final exam. If you find yourself intimidated by these readings, please note that a guide for reading scholarly texts is available on iLearn. I am also available to talk with you about reading strategies (both are available on iLearn).

Suggested Text: Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele, Queer: A Graphic History (Icon Books) - this book is a great supplement to reading queer theory texts for the first time. It condenses many of the foundational ideas of queer theory into single page, illustrated explanations. While it is by no means through, nor does it replace reading the original text, it can help you understand some key concepts. (available on Amazon)

A Note on Content: Some of the work and texts in this course will directly reference the human body. Please be advised that sexually explicit images and descriptions may appear at any point.

Your Responsibilities (and Grade)Operate with IntegrityThroughout this course, we will engage with topics, images, materials and histories that can feel quite sensitive and vulnerable for some of us. By enrolling in this class, you are committing to conducting yourself, framing your comments and questions, and approaching materials (images and texts) in a manner that values the diverse experiences that are undoubtedly, though maybe not visibly, present in our classroom community. You are committing to acquiring new knowledge about human experience, whether or not queerness or art are already familiar topics for you. A guiding principle for investigating images and texts in this course is that none of us are experts on gender (not even the instructor), yet each of us possesses unique insights into what it is to live as a gendered being that can enrich our discussions of and connections to visual materials.Mature Content Our course readings and classroom discussions will often be mature in content that is both political and personal. You might experience strong emotional reactions to some of the images and texts we cover. You might have emotional responses to your peers’ understanding of the readings. This is to be expected, yet all of us are responsible for managing our reactions and transforming them into well thought-out contributions to class discussions. We are also each responsible for presenting our perspectives in ways that produce a rigorous and respectful discursive environment.Gender-Inclusive Language It is essential that each participant in this class contribute to creating an environment in which people of all identities are encouraged to share their perspectives. Using appropriate and respectful language is key to this process. Just as sexist language excludes women’s experiences, non-gender-inclusive language excludes the experiences of trans, intersex, and genderqueer individuals. Language is gender-inclusive and non-sexist when we use words that recognize and affirm how people describe, express, and experience their gender. Gender-inclusive/non-sexist language avoids assuming a male speaker (freshman, upperclassman, chairman, mankind, etc.), erasing non-binary gender identifications, and conflating biological sex with gender expression (text borrowed from the University of Pittsburgh Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies website).Accept Challenges with GraceIn taking this class you are also committing to challenging yourself to develop an acute ability to read and analyze images and texts. Studying images requires time. It takes time for the nuances of images to become apparent to us. In the world we live in, time is often scarce, and it can be a challenge to sit still in front of an image and to wait for its depth to become clear to us. I urge you to take on this challenge and trust that extended looking can offer information that is otherwise unknowable. Studying history and theory also takes time, but there are ways to streamline the experience without sacrificing your learning. I have provided a guide for efficiently and effectively reading dense texts that outlines a few useful strategies on the course website.Grades for this class will be composed of the following parts:10% Class Participation 15% Descriptive Practice (1 page)15% In-class Image Presentation15% Midterm20% Final Paper and Presentation (10 pages)25% Final ExamLate assignments will not be accepted without prior arrangementExam, Assignment & Course Grading Scale 94-100 (A); 90-93 (A-); 88-89 (B+); 83-87 (B); 80-82 (B-); 78-79 (C+); 73-77 (C); 70-72 (C-); 68-69 (D+); 63-67 (D); 60-62 (D-); 59 and below (F).My ResponsibilitiesIt is my privilege to design the syllabus, teach this course and facilitate a dynamic learning environment. To help foster the latter, I have planned key activities that expand beyond weekly lectures. These include an in-class writing workshop, a guest lecture, and an in-class visit to SFMOMA to engage with works of art in person. I will also be available during the office hours listed at the top of this syllabus and by appointment to further facilitate your success in this class.

Weekly ReadingsEach week I provide a selection of texts that are intended to operate on a number of different registers. Some texts serve to provide useful historical context that surpasses what I will include in lecture. Some texts will give you further background in the discipline of art history. The connection between these readings and the works of art we will be looking at will probably be pretty obvious, but will nonetheless challenge you to read much more deeply into an image and how it might be situated in a social or historical sphere. Other texts will present key arguments within queer theory that I feel challenge us to consider the implications of the imagery a work of art offers. A few of these texts might be difficult to unravel on your own, but I encourage you to get as much from them as you can, to use your notes to track both your understanding and questions and to come to class willing to share both your insights and your confusion in discussion sections. Other readings will be primary texts produced during and in direct response to the time or topic in question. I will provide images and questions for you all to grapple with and debate during your group discussions of the texts as a way to help guide you to greater clarity about how these texts and works of art might relate to one another and to LGBTQ+ history.Guest LecturesI have invited my colleagues, curators and art historians Jon Davies and Indie Choudhury, to speak with us about the artists Andy Warhol, Beauford Delaney, and Glenn Logon. Jon is currently working on a PhD in art history and film studies at Stanford University and a catalog essay for the forthcoming exhibition of Warhol contact sheets set to open at the Cantor Art Center in 2018. He has a background in film and queer studies, and prior to arriving at Stanford, he worked as a contemporary art curator at The Power Plant, Oakville Galleries and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Indie is a PhD candidate in Art and Art History at Stanford University. Her field of interest spans transatlantic abstraction within the black diaspora and more widely, the politics and poetics of representation. Previous posts held prior to her doctoral work include at: The Institute of International Visual Arts, The National Maritime Museum, Tate Britain, and Tate Modern.

Museum VisitOn Friday, February 16, we will meet at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to visit the current exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules and works by his long-time partner Jasper Johns Rauschenberg that are on view in the permanent collection galleries. Rauschenberg and Johns were gay artists making art in the wake of Abstract Expressionism, and we will discuss how their queerness might be evident in their work. Course CalendarWeek 1: Introduction to Queer Art and History

Week 2: Picturing “Queer” in the First Decades of the Twentieth Century